Omaha daily bee., 1887-01-08
THE II. u q. WRECK.
Testimony Being Taken by the Cor
nnnr nf Thin.

CLEVELAND, Jan. THE inquest into
thecauses of the Baltimore Il Ohio wreck at
Republic. o., was begun at o'clock this
afternoon at Ttlin. 4 special to the Leader
says that the city hall. where the inquest is
being held, was crowded. The first witness
examined was l.. f. Fletcher, conductor of
the freight train. lie said: ed Killer was
engineer of the freight and w. j. Cullison
fireman. We ran from Ti0n to Seneca sid
ing. about three and onc-half miles cast of
here, and Sidetracled for the eaSt-bound eN-
press. After this train passed we had forty
live minutes In which to make the Republic
siding. We left this place with no pounds
OF steam. After getting two miles | noliced
the train was Stacking. | went forward over
the cars, Gig htecn in number to the engine
TO SEQ what was wrong. ! found that the
! opened the door Of the furnace and looked
at the fire, then looked at my watch and saw
that we had but -four minutes until No u, the
westbOuud express, was due | took n red
and white lantern and started and ran ahead
to flag her. got about 100 yards in the curve
and Signallet to stop. As tie express ap.
preached | noticed that the engineer had
reversed the engine. In the meantime the
freight had come to a stand and the engineer
had shut off steam aud jumped OIL when the
collision occurred. The engineer had been
drinking. | saw him take two drinks OF
whisky at Bloomdalc and two at tostUria
When | saw we had but four minutes to
make the siding at Republic, the engineer did
moi seem to realize the danger ahead. tried
to get the passengers out of the burning cars.
] tried to ret man named Nj. IL. Parks out,
but the flames drove me away, and lie had to
burn. heard no shreks or cries of others
in the burning cars.
w. j. Cullison, the fireman on the freight,
was next called. lie said he was a farm
hand and had been on the road but three
weeks, and never knew anything about the
business before. He said; we had trouble
IN keeping up the fire. We had l4o pounds
of steam when we lett Seneca siding. The
train ran four or live miles when the
steam was down to sixty pounds. We
were then, going about three miles
per hour. The conductor came in; looked at
the fire and SAID il was all right, When the
conductor went ahead to flag and saw the eN-
press coming, he yelled back for us to jump.
After the collision occurred | tried to get
persons out ! saw persons in there burning,
but was so excited | could tell but little
about it,"
Charles Sneider. of Columbus was the
front brakeman on the freight. lie said: 81
was in the cab of the engine aud noticed that
they had but one gauge of water, when they
should have at least three. ! was going ahead
to flag, but the conductor grabbed the lantern
and went. | knew nothing about
either the conductor or engineer drinking.
At the collision l.saw man hanging, about
half way out of the smoker who called to me
for Gods sake to help him ont. The man
was supposed to be NJ. II. Parks, of Washing
ton; MI ! heard no one on the inside OF the
Thomas +. lleskett of Wheeling, W Va,
conductor oI the express on the night of the
collision, testified: 1.-The express was three
minutes late al Republic. | had about sixty
passenger, fourteen or fifteen in the smoker.
OF that number five escaped from the smoker,
two by being thrown out of the top of the car
uninjured and three somewhat injured. |
think there were not more than ten killed"
The inquest will be resumed in the morn